The quote to convert one sloped-roof closet into a bathroom came back at a whopping $71,000.
The room is just twenty-five square feet.
Mainland Whisky in South Surrey cannot reopen its lounge without it.
Owner Steve Watts has spent the past year running a lounge with ten seats in it.
It used to hold thirty.
A previous liquor inspector cut the number, and with it went the private events business the distillery had been building.
A second commercial washroom is what unlocks the way back, and not just to thirty.
With it, the occupancy goes up to fifty.
So Watts got the work quoted.
Design, permits, plumbing, architectural plans, electrical, engineering.
When the landlord’s contracting company finally came back, it was $71,000 for a single commercial restroom, in a closet.
The quote came with a line the distillery has since published in full: a “10% savings on this amount to be target through negotiations with Trades and Value Engineering.”
Mainland’s own summary of the figure is that it is the price of a luxury sports car.
The distillery posted a screenshot of that record and tagged the City of Surrey with a single line: “is this a joke? This is for a 25sqft bathroom.”
The comment section filled with other operators, including a cooperage owner who wrote that people always ask him about tariffs when the thing actually killing small businesses in his communities is municipal bureaucracy.
Rather than wait, the team launched Project Occupancy, which is a creative fundraiser dressed up as a bit.
The perks are the retell part.
A hundred and fifty dollars buys a personalised four by four ceramic tile installed in the new backsplash with your name or your photo on it.
A thousand dollars buys The Porcelain Pioneer, which includes the ceremonial first flush, a tile, and a two hundred and fifty dollar bar tab.
Below that there is a fifty dollar gift card, a sixty dollar three-pack of cocktail bitters, a five hundred dollar barstool with your name on it, and a cocktail class for ten.
You can find all the available perks as part of the crowdfunding here.
None of this is a business in trouble on the shelf side.
Watts says Mainland is in almost three hundred private liquor stores across British Columbia.
The lounge is the piece that broke, and lounges are where a distillery makes its margin and its regulars.
Watts has been blunt about what happens if the money lands and the permit clears: “And then we’re going to throw a huge party!”
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Address: 107-3425 189 Street, Surrey BC